Judge: Tennessee must release consultant COVID response docs

By JONATHAN MATTISE

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee answers a question while taking part in a panel discussion during a Republican Governors Association conference on Nov. 15, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. On Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, a Tennessee judge ordered Lee’s administration to release consultant reports that recommend how to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic — documents the state argued should remain secret under public records law.

 (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)



NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee judge has ordered Gov. Bill Lee’s administration to release consultant reports that recommend how to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic — documents the state argued should remain secret under public records law.

Davidson County Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal on Tuesday ruled in favor of FW Publishing and journalist Stephen Elliott, who had requested documents assembled by consulting company McKinsey and Company for the Republican governor’s team. FW Publishing is the parent company of the Nashville Scene, Nashville Post and other Tennessee publications. McKinsey charged the state $3.8 million for its work.

The series of records requests, some dating back to 2020, resulted in denials and later releases of certain documents. Ultimately, the state withheld six documents and redacted parts of others, claiming they fell under a “deliberative process” privilege. The lawsuit was filed in January 2022.

The exemption — under which officials deem that certain documents can remain secret if they are part of their decision-making process — isn’t in state law or rules. In this week’s ruling, the judge wrote that it exists in common law and has been used to prevent public disclosure of protected documents in legal discovery, but said it “has yet to be decided” whether the privilege applies as an exception to the Tennessee Public Records Act.

Lee’s office and the attorney general’s office did not immediately return requests for comment regarding the ruling.

Paul McAdoo, an attorney representing FW Publishing in the case through the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, argued that the deliberative process privilege isn’t an exception to Tennessee public records law. McAdoo has represented The Associated Press and other media organizations in court in Tennessee.

“While we continue to believe that the common law deliberative process privilege should not be recognized by courts in Tennessee, we are pleased with the Court’s finding that the McKinsey records would not be covered by such a privilege and must be disclosed,” McAdoo said. “The release of this information is important to providing Tennesseans with a more complete understanding of the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The documents that the state refused to produce include: one identifying key strategic issues to be addressed; two “scenario planning” documents; an “economic scenario planning” document; a file about issues and strategies for institutions under the Tennessee Higher Education Commission; and a document outlining “potential bold moves to combat COVID-19,” the judge wrote.

The judge ordered the records be made public, saying they were one-way communications from McKinsey to the Lee administration’s COVID-focused Unified Command Group, or UCG, and “do not reflect the content of discussions between McKinsey and the UCG, deliberations had, or specific advice given.”

The judge also dismissed the state’s argument that Elliott and FW Publishing lacked legal standing in the lawsuit because attorneys for the state contended that neither plaintiffs provided sufficient proof they are a “citizen” of Tennessee. Under Tennessee law, state public records requests can be limited to “any citizen of Tennessee,” though state agencies vary on whether they enforce the provision. In case filings, Elliott said he is a Nashville resident, and FW Publishing has indicated it’s a Tennessee company that principally does business in Nashville.

The judge noted there are no “cases determining the test for citizenship” under the state’s public records law, but the statute does mandate that courts interpret the law as broadly as possible “to give the fullest possible public access to public records.”

A similar lawsuit had challenged the state’s withholding of the government efficiency report assembled by McKinsey. The state ultimately provided the requested report, resolving that case.

Gov. Lee’s office regularly cites deliberative process to exclude certain documents when producing records requested by The Associated Press, often when it comes to communications of members of his team.

Lee, who came into office as a first-time politician, vowed to make government more transparent when he took over the top elected office in 2019.

However, the governor has not yet followed through on a promise to overhaul Tennessee’s public records and open meeting laws that he initially promised during his transition.

___

Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville contributed to this report.

Massachusetts

‘Period poverty’ addressed during 

Gov. Maura Healey- Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll tour

Preinaugural events highlight community service

Jan. 4, 2023 – Incoming Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll visit Lowell High, where students, staff and volunteers are stuffing 1,000 confidence packs of personal hygiene products for students in need. From left, Healey greets Lowell High seniors Annamaria Mbuyu, Ann Kirsten Tweneh and Beatrice Nji. (Julia Malakie/Lowell Sun)

By MELANIE GILBERT | mgilbert@lowellsun.com |
 January 4, 2023

LOWELL — It wasn’t a rock concert, but the energy felt electric when incoming Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll entered the cafeteria of Lowell High School Wednesday afternoon.

It was their last stop on “Team Up Massachusetts,” a community service-oriented tour that included LHS’s Catie’s Closet.

The crowd surged forward and enveloped the pair, phones were held aloft to snap photos, while others stood on tables and chairs to get a better look at the incoming leadership to Beacon Hill. Healey and Driscoll, who will be sworn in on Thursday, will serve as the nation’s first all-female governor and lieutenant governor duo.

After greeting local and state-level dignitaries, staff and students, Healey and Driscoll got to work, grabbing reusable shopping bags and filling them with personal-care products stocked high on a long row of tables.

“This week was about community service around this great state,” Healey said. “There’s a lot of need — food, housing, clothing — and Kim and I recognize that, and we want to be ready to deliver for people, especially those who are struggling right now.”

Catie’s Closet, a place where the clothing and hygiene needs of unhoused students or those facing other economic hardships can be met at the school they attend, was selected to represent the incoming administration’s focus on making the commonwealth more affordable, bringing communities together and giving back to those in need.

“It’s great to be in a place that is helping students, particularly students in a Gateway City,” Driscoll said. “As the mayor of Salem, I know how (important it is) to get what you need in school. Schools are more than just a place that’s educating kids — we’re thinking about the whole child and that’s what this project symbolizes to us.”

The 1,000 bags included typical items such as shampoo, soap, deodorant, toothpaste and toothbrushes, but they also have what Catie’s Closet founder Anne-Marie Sousa called items to address “period poverty.”

“The number of days of school that females miss due to not having the money to purchase products for their periods is unacceptable,” she said. “Our main mission is to keep kids in school and reduce absenteeism, so this became a sub-project for us. Young women at LHS can pick out clothing and period supplies for free.”

Sousa is the mother to Catie Bisson, a 2008 LHS graduate who died in 2010 after a lengthy battle with Loeys-Dietz syndrome, a rare genetic disease that affects connective tissue. Bisson was 20, but had already envisioned a place where students would get their needs met. Her family founded the first Catie’s Closet in an unused room at LHS in 2010.

The Dracut-based nonprofit now has spaces in 120 schools in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

“This is very overwhelming to be honest with you,” Sousa said, with teary eyes as she watched at least 100 volunteers assemble bags. “The governor-elect was presented with some options, and we were one that she chose. To bring that kind of awareness to what we do — it’s humbling. It’s more special that I can even say.”

LHS freshmen and Student Council members Sireiyutta Yam and Shyleen Mtiziwa were some of the student volunteers tying greeting tags to completed bags. Yam came to Lowell from Siem Reap, Cambodia, three years ago; Mtiziwa is newly arrived from Zimbabwe.

“I am so new — I came to this country four months ago,” Mtiziwa said. “People are so nice. When I saw the invitation to volunteer, I thought, ‘I want to do something. I want to help people.’”

Healey said that was the community-service aspect she was looking for when putting together the five-city tour that also visited Springfield, Worcester, Taunton and South Yarmouth.

“While campaigning, I really enjoyed seeing young people take the initiative out there in their community leading on all sorts of projects and endeavors,” Healey said. “It’s sad that Catie is no longer with us, but her initiative — and her family’s initiative — starting something like this to help other young people, is really beautiful, and that’s what brings us here today.”

   

JAN 7 ORTHODOX XMAS

'Keep Hypocrisy to Yourself,' Says Ukraine Official After Putin Orders Christmas Truce

Russia "must leave the occupied territories—only then will it have a 'temporary truce," said a Ukrainian presidential adviser who called the Russian church's statement "a cynical trap and an element of propaganda."

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin attend an Orthodox Easter mass led by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral on April 24, 2022 in Russia's capital city.
(Photo: Getty Images)

JESSICA CORBETT
Jan 05, 2023

Under pressure from a key religious leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a 36-hour cease-fire for the war on Ukraine launched last February—a move swiftly criticized by an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Putin's decision came after the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) said that "I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, call on all parties involved in the internecine conflict to establish a Christmas cease-fire from 12:00 pm Moscow time on January 6 to 12:00 am on January 7 so that Orthodox people could attend church services on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day."

The Russian president said in a statement that "taking into account the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I instruct the minister of defense of the Russian Federation to introduce from 12:00 January 6, 2023 until 24:00 January 7, 2023, a cease-fire along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine."

"Based on the fact that a large number of citizens professing Orthodoxy live in the combat areas," Putin continued, "we call on the Ukrainian side to declare a cease-fire and give them the opportunity to attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on the Day of the Nativity of Christ."

As Bloombergreported:

For Putin, the offer is "a play at generosity for the public," Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of R.Politik political consultant, wrote in Telegram. She noted that after Ukrainian missile strikes on January 1 killed scores of Russian troops in occupied territory, "he certainly doesn't want something like that to happen on Christmas."

Russia's Ministry of Defense said Monday that Ukrainian rockets killed 63 soldiers in Russian-occupied Donetsk. The ministry also confirmed Thursday that troops have been instructed to observe the temporary cease-fire ordered by Putin.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, responded to the developments Thursday by blasting both the ROC—known for its leader's close relationship with the Kremlin—and the Russian Federation (RF) cease-fire.

"ROC is not an authority for global Orthodoxy and acts as a 'war propagandist,'" Podolyak tweeted. "ROC called for the genocide of Ukrainians, incited mass murder, and insists on even greater militarization of RF. Thus, ROC's statement about [a] 'Christmas truce' is a cynical trap and an element of propaganda."

After the Kremlin's decision, Podolyak added: "First. Ukraine doesn't attack foreign territory and doesn't kill civilians. As RF does. Ukraine destroys only members of the occupation army on its territory... Second. RF must leave the occupied territories—only then will it have a 'temporary truce.' Keep hypocrisy to yourself."

Ukrainian citizens and soldiers who spoke with CNNexpressed skepticism that Putin's directive will actually halt fighting.

"They shell us every day, people die in Kherson every day. And this temporary measure won't change anything," Pavlo Skotarenko, a resident of the Ukrainian region where at least four people were killed Thursday, told the network by phone. "Their soldiers here on the ground will continue to fire mortars. The provocations will happen for sure."

From the beginning of the invasion through Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights "recorded 17,994 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 6,919 killed and 11,075 injured." However, the office "believes that the actual figures are considerably higher."

Skotarenko said that "the only positive thing from this possible cease-fire is that our guys may have a day or two for rest and reset."

Russia's planned cease-fire did not seem to signal a step toward ending the war. The Kremlin said in a statement that during a Thursday phone call, Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan "discussed the situation around Ukraine. Russia laid an emphasis on the destructive role of Western countries who have been pumping the Kyiv regime with weapons and military hardware as well as providing it with operational information and assigning targets to it."

In response to Erdogan's willingness to mediate, the Kremlin added that "Putin reiterated that Russia is open to a serious dialogue, given authorities in Kyiv meet demands that have been repeatedly put forward, with due account taken of the new territorial realities," a reference to regions of Ukraine occupied by Russia.



Zelenskyy also spoke with Erdogan on Thursday. The Ukrainian president said that the two leaders "discussed security cooperation of our countries, nuclear safety issues, in particular the situation at [Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant]. There should be no invaders there. We also talked about the exchange of prisoners of war with Turkish mediation [and] the development of the grain agreement. We appreciate Turkey's willingness to take part in the implementation of our peace formula."

The developments Thursday came after over 1,000 faith leaders in the United States—including Bishop William J. Barber II, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dr. Cornel West, Rev. Liz Theoharis, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, and Sikh leader Valarie Kaur—signed a statement calling for Christmas truce inspired by World War I, shortly before the holiday celebrated by many around the world on December 25.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


JESSICA CORBETT is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

Study: Two-thirds of glaciers on track to disappear by 2100

By SETH BORENSTEIN

1 of 3

Chunks of ice float on Mendenhall Lake in front of the Mendenhall Glacier on Monday, May 30, 2022, in Juneau, Alaska. A study of all of the world's 215,000 glaciers published on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, finds even if with the unlikely minimum warming of only a few tenths of a degrees more, the world will lose nearly half its glaciers by the end of the century. With the warming we're now on track to get, the world will lose two-thirds of its glaciers and overall glacier mass will drop by one-third while sea level rises 4.5 inches just from melting glaciers. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

The world’s glaciers are shrinking and disappearing faster than scientists thought, with two-thirds of them projected to melt out of existence by the end of the century at current climate change trends, according to a new study.

But if the world can limit future warming to just a few more tenths of a degree and fulfill international goals — technically possible but unlikely according to many scientists — then slightly less than half the globe’s glaciers will disappear, said the same study. Mostly small but well-known glaciers are marching to extinction, study authors said.

In an also unlikely worst-case scenario of several degrees of warming, 83% of the world’s glaciers would likely disappear by the year 2100, study authors said.

The study in Thursday’s journal Science examined all of the globe’s 215,000 land-based glaciers -- not counting those on ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica -- in a more comprehensive way than past studies. Scientists then used computer simulations to calculate, using different levels of warming, how many glaciers would disappear, how many trillions of tons of ice would melt, and how much it would contribute to sea level rise.

The world is now on track for a 2.7-degree Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature rise since pre-industrial times, which by the year 2100 means losing 32% of the world’s glacier mass, or 48.5 trillion metric tons of ice as well as 68% of the glaciers disappearing. That would increase sea level rise by 4.5 inches (115 millimeters) in addition to seas already getting larger from melting ice sheets and warmer water, said study lead author David Rounce.

“No matter what, we’re going to lose a lot of the glaciers,” Rounce, a glaciologist and engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said. “But we have the ability to make a difference by limiting how many glaciers we lose.”

“For many small glaciers it is too late,” said study co-author Regine Hock, a glaciologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Oslo in Norway. “However, globally our results clearly show that every degree of global temperature matters to keep as much ice as possible locked up in the glaciers.”

Projected ice loss by 2100 ranges from 38.7 trillion metric tons to 64.4 trillion tons, depending on how much the globe warms and how much coal, oil and gas is burned, according to the study.

The study calculates that all that melting ice will add anywhere from 3.5 inches (90 millimeters) in the best case to 6.5 inches (166 millimeters) in the worst case to the world’s sea level, 4% to 14% more than previous projections.

That 4.5 inches of sea level rise from glaciers would mean more than 10 million people around the world — and more than 100,000 people in the United States — would be living below the high tide line, who otherwise would be above it, said sea level rise researcher Ben Strauss, CEO of Climate Central. Twentieth-century sea level rise from climate change added about 4 inches to the surge from 2012 Superstorm Sandy costing about $8 billion in damage just in itself, he said.

Scientists say future sea level rise will be driven more by melting ice sheets than glaciers.

But the loss of glaciers is about more than rising seas. It means shrinking water supplies for a big chunk of the world’s population, more risk from flood events from melting glaciers and about losing historic ice-covered spots from Alaska to the Alps to even near Mount Everest’s base camp, several scientists told The Associated Press.

“For places like the Alps or Iceland... glaciers are part of what makes these landscapes so special,” said National Snow and Ice Data Center Director Mark Serreze, who wasn’t part of the study but praised it. “As they lose their ice in a sense they also lose their soul.”

Hock pointed to Vernagtferner glacier in the Austrian Alps, which is one of the best-studied glaciers in the world, but said “the glacier will be gone.”

The Columbia Glacier in Alaska had 216 billion tons of ice in 2015, but with just a few more tenths of a degree of warming, Rounce calculated it will be half that size. If there’s 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times, an unlikely worst-case scenario, it will lose two-thirds of its mass, he said.

“It’s definitely a hard one to look at and not drop your jaw at,” Rounce said.

Glaciers are crucial to people’s lives in much of the world, said National Snow and Ice Center Deputy Lead Scientist Twila Moon, who wasn’t part of the study.

“Glaciers provide drinking water, agricultural water, hydropower, and other services that support billions (yes, billions!) of people,” Moon said in an email.

Moon said the study “represents significant advances in projecting how the world’s glaciers may change over the next 80 years due to human-created climate change.”

That’s because the study includes factors in glacier changes that previous studies didn’t and is more detailed, said Ruth Mottram and Martin Stendel, climate scientists at the Danish Meteorological Institute who weren’t part of the research.

This new study better factors in how the glaciers’ ice melts not just from warmer air, but water both below and at the edges of glaciers and how debris can slow melt, Stendel and Mottram said. Previous studies concentrated on large glaciers and made regional estimates instead of calculations for each individual glacier.

In most cases, the estimated loss figures Rounce’s team came up with are slightly more dire than earlier estimates.

If the world can somehow limit warming to the global goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times -- the world is already at 1.1 degrees (2 degrees Fahrenheit) -- Earth will likely lose 26% of total glacial mass by the end of the century, which is 38.7 trillion metric tons of ice melting. Previous best estimates had that level of warming melting translating to only 18% of total mass loss.

“I have worked on glaciers in the Alps and Norway which are really rapidly disappearing,” Mottram said in an email. “It’s kind of devastating to see.”

___

Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @ borenbears

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Venezuela's Lack Of Dredging Causes Trouble For Chevron's Heavy Oil Exports

By Mircely Guanipa and Marianna Parraga
01/04/23

An oil tanker sails on Lake Maracaibo, in Cabimas, Venezuela October 14, 2022

Ashipping channel snafu is slowing Chevron Corp's efforts to load tankers at one of its four Venezuelan joint ventures and bring heavy crude to the United States, three people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Washington in November authorized the last major U.S. firm still operating in Venezuela to restore lost output and begin exporting oil as a way to encourage talks between Nicolas Maduro's government and the country's political opposition.

But a plan to move heavy oil quickly from inventories at the Petroboscan joint venture with state-run company PDVSA is facing delays because of lack of dredging at Maracaibo Lake's navigation channel, the people said.

A dredge is often needed to clean out the bed of water areas by scooping out mud, weeds and rubbish so vessels can transit.

Shallow waters in the channel caused a non-Chevron-related vessel carrying scrap metal go aground in December. Petroboscan has instructed vessels since to limit their draft after loading at the Bajo Grande oil terminal.

Maracaibo Lake's channel in the northwest of the country is suitable for loading tankers with a draft of only up to 9.8 meters, one of the people said. That means about 250,000 barrels of Boscan heavy crude can move at a time through the channel linking Bajo Grande to the Caribbean Sea.

In a sign that Chevron expects to expand operations quickly, the oil producer has begun advertising for Venezuelan contract administrators and cargo schedulers. It is recruiting to restaff long-idled operations, particularly for its marketing and trading divisions, which will handle oil exports for its own U.S. refineries and others.

Chevron started preparing to reanimate operations at its joint ventures in Venezuela last year while submitting a license request to the U.S. Treasury Department, following an agreement with PDVSA. The company wants to assemble a trading team to market oil from Venezuela and expand its role in the four projects.

PDVSA and Chevron did not reply to requests for comment.

LITTLE BY LITTLE

Small tankers coming from Bajo Grande are moving Venezuela's western crudes to a ship-to-ship transfer area along the country's coast, where they fill larger vessels. The first Chevron-chartered cargo loaded this way has not yet departed for the United States, according to the people and Refinitiv Eikon tracking data.

Chevron has chartered three vessels for Venezuela: the UACC Eagle, which will discharge a U.S. cargo of heavy naphtha at PDVSA's Jose port later this week; the Caribbean Voyager, which is loading 500,000 barrels of Hamaca crude for Chevron's refinery in Pasacagoula, Mississippi; and the Kerala, which arrived on Tuesday in Maracaibo Lake's channel to load Boscan crude, according to shipping documents and Eikon data.

Italian oil firm Eni also is planning to obtain a cargo of Venezuelan crude this month under an arrangement that began last year to receive Venezuelan oil in exchange for repayment of pending debt, according to a separate person familiar with the matter.

UK

SIR KEIR PROMISES TO BE A BETTER TORY THAN THE TORIES

Starmer pledges 'take back control' Bill

Sir Keir Starmer is now making a policy announcement on devolution. 

He says a Labour government would pass a "take back control" bill to give communities more local powers. 

The Labour leader says he wants to embrace the "take back control" slogan of the 2016 Brexit referendum "and turn it into a solution". 

He says that although he voted to remain in the EU, he understood the desire of Leave voters to "take back control and it's not an unreasonable demand".

"It's not unreasonable for us to recognise the desire of communities to stand on their own feet" he says. 

"So we will embrace the take back control message - turn it from slogan into solution, from catchphrase into change - devolve new powers over employment, transport, energy, housing, culture and how councils run their finances.

"All this will be in a new take back control bill, a centrepiece of our first King's Speech". 

Keir Starmer promises 'take back control' bill aimed at devolving power out of Westminster as he embraces Brexit slogan in first big speech of 2023

Sky News

Labour’s Starmer Promises to End ‘Sticking-Plaster Politics’

Emily Ashton
Thu, January 5, 2023


(Bloomberg) -- UK opposition leader Keir Starmer vowed to end an era of “sticking-plaster politics,” pointing to ongoing industrial action and pressure on the National Health Service as evidence that Westminster’s “short-term mindset” is failing the UK.

In a keynote speech in London on Thursday, the Labour Party leader pledged a “decade of national renewal” if he wins power in the next general election, and repurposed the language of Brexit with a promise of a “Take Back Control Bill” to revive local communities. He also insisted that Labour would repeal any new anti-strike legislation passed by the current government.

https://t.co/AsQWoq9POp pic.twitter.com/rkaFU7Ored

— Bloomberg UK (@BloombergUK) January 5, 2023

But Starmer warned that a Labour government “won’t be able to spend our way out of this mess,” saying there was “no substitute for a robust private sector, creating wealth in every community.”

Starmer’s new year address comes just one day after Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set out his own priorities, pledging to repair and grow Britain’s economy, tackle immigration and improve health care. Both men are eager to hit the reset button on their leadership as they gear up for an election expected next year - and by Jan. 2025 at the latest.

The Tories will by then have been in power for 14 years and Starmer hopes to lead Labour back to victory. He is buoyed by polling that in recent months putting Labour ahead of the Conservatives by more than 20 points.

https://t.co/UrsCCOoLhH pic.twitter.com/iO3ayfoAJZ

— Bloomberg UK (@BloombergUK) January 5, 2023

Starmer is attempting to capitalize on voter frustration with the Tory government. In office for less than three months, Sunak is struggling to prove he has a strategy to deal with strikes affecting the NHS and rail services, while also wrestling with a record cost-of-living squeeze and an economy that may already be in recession.

Starmer reiterated a previous pledge to hand more powers to local communities if Labour takes charge, reviving a famous Vote Leave slogan from the 2016 Brexit referendum. “The control people want is control over their lives and their community,” he said. “It’s what ‘take back control’ meant.”

He was also clear in his opposition to proposed Conservative anti-strike legislation, which will be announced in the coming days and could allow employers in essential sectors to fire striking employees. “If it’s further restrictions, then we will repeal it,” Starmer said. “I don’t think the legislation is going to work.”

Focusing on a positive message after months of gloomy headlines, he said Labour wanted to “give people a sense of possibility again, light at the end of the tunnel.”

But he warned that the need for reform should not “be taken as code for Labour getting its big government checkbook out again.” The investment required to revitalize the UK must instead come from a vibrant private sector and a “completely new way of governing,” Starmer will say.

His comments — which echo Sunak’s call for a focus on innovation in his Wednesday speech — are the latest effort by Labour to portray itself as pro-business and lure back supporters who abandoned the party under the left-wing leadership of Starmer’s predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

Starmer promised to set out more detail on specific policy areas in the coming weeks, vowing a more “relaxed” approach to “bringing in the expertise of public and private, business and union, town and city.”

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Starmer says Labour’s vision for government will not lead to big spending

By PA News Agency

A future Labour government will not “spend our way out” of the “mess” inherited from the Conservatives, Sir Keir Starmer will pledge.

The Labour leader is set to follow Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s vision-setting for the country by outlining his own blueprint for Britain in a new year speech in east London.

Sir Keir and his shadow cabinet have been keen to pour cold water on Conservative accusations that the party cannot be trusted with the economy.

He is expected to tell an audience in Stratford that his fresh pledges “should not be “taken as code for Labour getting its big government chequebook out again”.

We won’t be able to spend our way out of their mess – it’s not as easy as thatLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer

He is expected to say: “Of course, investment is required – I can see the damage the Tories have done to our public services as plainly as anyone.

“But we won’t be able to spend our way out of their mess – it’s not as easy as that.

“There is no substitute for a robust, private sector, creating wealth in every community.”


Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves echoed that sentiment during an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in which she said Labour would have to use both investment and reforms to sort Britain’s current woes.

“We know we can’t make all the changes we want to see overnight,” she said.

“The neglect of our health service and the failure to grow our economy these last 13 years means an incoming Labour government is going to face a tough inheritance.

“But, with Labour, the cavalry is coming.”

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said reforms would have to help drive changes as well as spending (James Manning/PA)

Asked whether Labour would get close to the £70 billion extra that the Health Foundation charity has estimated will be required by the NHS by 2030, Ms Reeves pointed to the financial chaos that ensued during the short tenure of former prime minister Liz Truss.

“So much that we want to do requires money, but so much also requires reform of our public services,” she said.


Such reforms could involve increasing the amount of spare private health sector capacity the NHS currently uses, Ms Reeves confirmed.

Put to her that some within the Labour Party might consider such a stance to be “privatisation by the back door”, Ms Reeves added: “It is absolutely not.

“It is not fair that, if you don’t have the money and resources, you are waiting for months and months, sometimes years, to get hospital operations. I won’t allow that.”

Sir Keir’s first speech of 2023 comes a day after the Prime Minister delivered his own address, promising to halve inflation, deal with NHS waiting lists, and tackle small boats crossing the English Channel

.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave his first major domestic speech of 2023 at Plexal, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The Opposition leader is expected to pledge to create the “sort of hope you can build your future around”.

Speaking about the future of the country, Sir Keir is set to say: “This new year, let us imagine what we could achieve if we match the ambition of the British people, unlock their pride and their purpose, give them an economy and a politics they deserve.

“That’s why I say Britain needs a completely new way of governing.

“You can’t overstate how much a short-term mindset dominates Westminster, and, from there, how it infects all the institutions which try, and fail, to run Britain from the centre.”

On the NHS, the Labour leader will talk about how the crises affecting the country have each been “an iceberg on the horizon”.

The new approach to governing will be driven by “national missions”, which Labour is expected to set out in the coming weeks, and which the Opposition will use to build its next election manifesto.

Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi said the speech will be “yet another desperate relaunch attempt”.

“Every week he changes his position depending on what he thinks is popular – from supporting free movement to supporting the unions, he’ll say anything if the politics suits him,” he said.

“He should stop giving cliche-laden speeches and, instead, finally unveil a plan for people’s priorities.”

Labour will not open ‘big government chequebook’, Starmer to say

Party leader’s new year speech to promise ‘national renewal’ if elected but stress role of private sector too

Keir Starmer, pictured with the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will warn that ‘we won’t be able to spend our way out of [the Tories’] mess’ in his new year speech. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA


Kiran Stacey

Wed 4 Jan 2023 

Labour will not open the “big government chequebook” in an attempt to repair Britain’s faltering public services if it wins the next election, Keir Starmer will warn.

In a new year speech in London on Thursday, setting out his principles for government, the Labour leader will promise a “decade of national renewal” if the party returns to government. But he will deny that the country’s problems can be fixed by more spending, even as doctors say the NHS is in crisis and strikes bring a number of public services to their knees.

Starmer will say: “We can give people a sense of possibility again, show light at the end of the tunnel.”

But he will add: “None of this should be taken as code for Labour getting its big government chequebook out again.

“Of course investment is required – I can see the damage the Tories have done to our public services as plainly as anyone. But we won’t be able to spend our way out of their mess – it’s not as easy as that. There is no substitute for a robust private sector, creating wealth in every community.”

Starmer’s speech comes a day after Rishi Sunak set out his own vision for Britain in a sprawling speech that touched on everything from graffiti to inflation to teaching maths in schools.

The prime minister promised to halve inflation this year, as well as to oversee an increase in growth and a decrease in national debt as a proportion of GDP. But he has been criticised for underplaying the problems plaguing the NHS, which doctors say could be causing as many as 500 avoidable deaths each week.

On Wednesday, Sunak admitted waiting lists were too long, but rejected the suggestions that elective surgeries should be cancelled to bring them down.

Starmer will talk about the multiple crises facing the government as an “iceberg on the horizon”, warning that the problems with public services are being exacerbated by short-term solutions from Westminster.

He will hint at plans to decentralise power, saying: “I call it ‘sticking plaster politics’. This year, we’re going to show how real change comes from unlocking the pride and purpose of Britain’s communities.”

“No more Westminster hoarding power, no more holding back this country’s economic potential,” he will add.

Starmer will also risk the anger of some of his MPs by speaking warmly about the idea of public-private partnerships, promising “a new approach to the power of government [that is] more relaxed about bringing in the expertise of public and private, business and union, town and city”.

The words echo the message from his shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, who has suggested using private health providers to bring down NHS waiting lists. But that idea has not proved popular with all the party’s MPs – on Wednesday, the shadow health minister Rosena Allin-Khan repeatedly refused to back the increased use of the private sector in the health service.

On Wednesday, Sunak set out five pledges against which he urged voters to judge him. Starmer has been more cautious about setting out specific promises, but on Thursday he will promise a Labour government would be “driven by clear, measurable objectives”.

He will add: “We will announce these missions in the coming weeks – our manifesto will be built around them. And they will be the driving force of the next Labour government.”

1918 German Revolution Contains Important Lessons for Russians when Putin Regime Collapses, Gallyamov Says

            Staunton, Jan. 4 – In the Russian of Vladimir Putin, the present and the future are discussed almost exclusively in terms of the past even by those who oppose the current Kremlin leader. Sometimes this leads to a dead end, but sometimes the past can offer extremely valuable lessons for Russians.

            An example of this is provided by Abbas Gallyamov, a former Putin speechwriter, in an article today in which he discussed the lessons the 1918 German revolution contains for Russians worried about what will happen when the Putin regime collapses and who want to avoid chaos and revolutionary change (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=63B58A6F7DA8E).

            When the Putin regime finally collapses – and this will happen next year or perhaps a little later, the commentator says – one of two groups will come to power, the moderates or the radicals. Given Russian experience, most people now fear that the radicals will win out and that everything now in place will be swept away as has happened twice since 1917.

            But it can happen that moderates will win the day if they recognize that they need to cooperate with the forces of order in the existing Putin regime and if those forces recognize that holding on to the current system to the bitter end will not only ensure that the radicals will win but that they, the current stakeholders, will be swept away.

            Germany in 1918 benefited from the fact that there were both moderates who recognized they had to make common cause with some in the existing regime to prevent radicalization and revolution and leaders within the existing government machine who understood that they could survive only by making alliances with the moderates whom they had always hated.

            Had one of the other of these forces not been present and not been willing to compromise to prevent collapse and disaster, an extreme revolution almost certainly would have broken out. And that carries lessons for both Russian moderates and for current regime supporters as to how they should act when the Putin regime enters its death agony.

            If moderates refuse to cooperate with those within the regime or if those within the regime refuse to have anything to do with the moderates, then the future is bleak, Gallyamov says, with another destructive revolution almost inevitable, one that will again sweep away the moderates, those within the current elites, and Russia’s future along with them.

Pakistan in a quagmire: Resurgence of terrorism along with its relations with Afghanistan

January 5, 2023
By Safwan Ali


When Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021, a large faction of the Pakistani society including mainstream politicians amused the fact that reins of Kabul had become in control of Taliban. One obvious reason for this felicitation was the much awaited perceived stability in neighboring Afghanistan which had direct impact on Pakistan. The other reason for jubilation in some factions was about the solidarity with regards to the identity of Afghan people. As brotherly nation, perseverance of Afghan people against the scourge of prolonged war, that too against the strongest military alliance, was a matter of inspiration for many in Pakistan. However, the formal response of the government was very much aligned with the global response. Islamabad did not officially recognize the interim government of Taliban. The eventful month of August, 2021 was followed by some key developments.

Considering the geo-political change in the neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistan started to rethink its strategy at the western border. Through a backdoor channel, Islamabad approached the Taliban government to ensure the security of its western border from the hideouts of TTP living in Afghanistan. In short, Pakistan wanted the Taliban government to take strong action against TTP. However, in response to that, Kabul with TTP onboard, came up with a “quid pro quo plus” approach. It urged the Pakistan’s government to have a formal agreement with TTP which later on proceeded through a back door channels. In the agreement, TTP agreed for so called cease-fire along and inside Pakistan’s territory in exchange for cessation of Pakistan’s military operation against TTP. Moreover, the strangest of demands that Pakistan agreed to, was providing, the previously expelled TTP associates, with permission to come back and reside in districts of the tribal area. On the other hand, second critical development following the fall of Kabul, was Pakistan’s stance in the international community with respect to humanitarian concerns in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s foreign minister repeatedly urged the International community to establish a meaningful dialogue and engagement with the fragile state of Afghanistan to help the people of Afghanistan. He frequently argued that alienation of a rouge actor prompts even harsher human rights violation by that actor. Hence the world should not neglect Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan Rather, it should accept the reality and engage with Afghanistan.

However, it is extremely unfortunate to write that, both the aforementioned developments, gave rise to a Pro-Taliban sentiment vis-à-vis Pakistan. Nevertheless, the same sentiment has often been misrepresented in the western literature, and the same narrative has also been used to demonize Pakistan at the international forums. However, in reality Pakistan had been the most affected country by terrorism and it had been fighting against the scourge of terrorism since over a decade now. What is even more unfortunate is that in the recent past, TTP announced to resume its nefarious terrorist activities in Pakistan. As a result, a spike in terrorist events specifically in KPK province has been witnessed. The December 21st,2022 military operation is a testament to aggravating law and order situation in the country, in which a group of 25 TTP associated terrorists had been killed, while holding a CTD compound, hostage in Bannu.

Because there is a resurgence of terrorism coupled with the international criticism due to perceived relations with Afghanistan under Taliban. “Pakistan is appeared to be in a quagmire.”

Now, what Pakistan can pursue to undo this, is to redevise a comprehensive plan of action against terrorism in KPK and former FATA. It should also formulate a clear strategy at the western border not to tolerate any presence as well as influx of militants from Afghanistan. Moreover, for future, the state of Pakistan should also learn from the abysmal agreement that it went in with a Non-State Actor (NSA). For NSA’s an agreement is nothing more than a concealing tool for a limited survival. It is because of the three reasons. First, an agreement is always done between two responsible actors; terrorist group like TTP has no burden of responsibility neither in a domestic setting nor at the international level. Whereas, a sovereign state has immense responsibility at the domestic and international level. Second, an agreement between two states holds significance because of the perceived repute in the international system, Whereas, for a non-state actor like TTP, International reputation never comes into the equation as such groups are already infamous for their terrorist agenda. Third, States are mostly bound to stick fast to their bilateral or multilateral agreements, because of the fear of diplomatic and economic sanctions once they pull back from the agreement. Whereas in case of Non-state actors, there exist no such incentive to remain in the agreement.

Considering all the three reasons, it is quite evident that engaging with TTP for so called ceasefire agreement was neither viable nor will it ever be, particularly because, as a state, Pakistan would have to offer a lot in exchange to absolutely nothing. Moreover, because of such an agreement, Pakistan would itself invite criticism from the already skeptical international community. Hence for Pakistan, no tolerance policy against terrorism is the only option possible in order to lower domestic and international cost simultaneously.

Quarry workers stumble upon remains of rare 16th-century English ship, researchers say

Layla Nelson

January 3, 2023




The remains of a rare 16th-century ship were unexpectedly unearthed along the English coast by quarry workers last year, archaeologists said.

Workers from CEMEX, a building materials company, were dredging a quarry near Kent in April when they came across the remains of the wooden ship and contacted experts, according to a December 30 press release from Wessex Archaeology.

“Very few English-built ships from the 16th century survive, making this a rare find from a fascinating period in maritime history,” said archaeologists.

The remains, including 100 English oak logs dating from 1558 to 1580, were found about a quarter of a mile from what is now the coast, archaeologists said. Experts believe the site was once on the coast and that the ship was likely wrecked or discarded.

The wooden remains are “really significant” because they allow for a broader understanding of trade and shipbuilding during the Elizabethan era, which lasted from 1558 to 1603, archaeologists said.



The era was a transitional period for shipbuilding, as shipbuilders were thought to have moved from a traditional building practice — like that observed with Viking ships — to a multi-part process of building the inner frame first, archaeologists said.

After the ship has been photographed and laser scanned, it will be reburied in the quarry so the silt can continue to support the wooden beams, archaeologists say.

“Finding a late 16th-century ship preserved in the sediment of a quarry was an unexpected but very welcome find,” said Andrea Hamel, marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, in the press release.

A spokesman for Wessex Archeology did not immediately respond to a McClatchy News request for comment.

Million-year-old skull could hold key to understanding evolution, Chinese experts say

Layla Nelson

January 4, 2023


More than a million years ago, the first humans—upright creatures with long legs, short arms, and large brains—roamed the earth for the first time.

Now Chinese experts say they have unearthed the most complete skull fossil of one of these humans, known as Homo erectus, from about a million years ago. And it could contain important details about human evolution.

It took more than six months to fully unearth the fossil.

The fossil was discovered in the northern region of China’s Hubei province at the Xuetang Liangzi site, which the National Administration for Cultural Heritage says dates to the Paleolithic period. The skull was found in May, but it took experts until December 3 to safely and fully excavate it.

Two damaged ancient Homo erectus skulls were previously found at the site in 1989 and 1990, the administration said. These fossils were named “Yunxian Man”.

As of 2021, the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology began a comprehensive search of the site for additional relics. Archaeologists found the third skull about 115 feet from where the first two were discovered, the administration said.

The discovery fills an existing gap in evolutionary understanding, Gao Xing, head of the archaeological team at the site and a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, told Xinhua News.

When the skull was unearthed, experts said they left a few inches of sediment for further sampling and study. The bone will now undergo further testing as researchers work to understand early humans and evolution.

Google Translate was used to translate press releases from the National Cultural Heritage Administration and the Institute of Archaeology.